Helvo launches its financial operating system for Swiss SMEs

Following a beta phase involving around 50 businesses, Swiss fintech Helvo is now available to SMEs across Switzerland. Built on a Swiss business account with CHF and EUR IBANs, Helvo connects the financial tools Swiss SMEs use to run their businesses, bringing accounts, payments, invoicing, accounting, payroll and financial insight into a single system. Accounts can be opened in 48–72 hours, subject to approval, with all new customers receiving their first month free as part of the public launch.

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND — 9 September 2026

Swiss fintech Helvo has launched its financial operating system for Swiss SMEs nationwide following a limited beta phase that began in June.

The launch comes as Switzerland has lost ground in digital banking. In Deloitte's first Digital Banking Maturity study in 2018,Switzerland ranked among the global top five; by 2024 it had fallen to 27th.For SMEs, the practical challenge is familiar: financial information is often spread across separate banking, accounting and administrative systems, creating manual work and limiting visibility. Helvo was built to connect those parts.

At the centre of Helvo is a Swiss business account with CHF and EUR IBANs, which can be opened in 48–72 hours, subject to approval. From there, businesses can manage their day-to-day finances in a single, connected platform, bringing financial activity, business records and supporting documents together and securely linking the information behind each transaction.

Helvo is designed both for entrepreneurs establishing their finances from day one and existing SMEs looking to simplify a fragmented financial setup. For founders starting a new Swiss company, Helvo also offers capital deposit accounts, providing a straightforward path from company formation to an active business account.

For established SMEs, Helvo will connect to existing bank accounts through Switzerland’s bLink open banking infrastructure, allowing businesses to benefit from connected financial workflows, intelligent automation and greater visibility without replacing their existing banking relationships.

One connected system, less financial complexity

Connecting financial information in one place reduces the manual work involved in keeping a company’s finances up to date. Tasks such as reconciliation, invoice processing and bookkeeping can increasingly be automated, while SMEs, accountants, fiduciaries and other professional partners can work from the same trusted financial data.

As that financial picture becomes more complete, Helvo can provide better insights, greater automation and more informed decision-making over time, while businesses remain in control of how financial actions are initiated and approved.

Most small businesses don’t have a shortage of financial data. The problem is that it sits in different places and nobody has the time to put it together,” says Julien Barbotin-Larrieu, CEO of Helvo. “For many SMEs, having a CFO or dedicated finance team simply isn’t realistic. By connecting transactions, invoices and accounting data in real time, Helvo gives entrepreneurs a trusted view of cash flow, runway and financial performance. That helps them make better-informed decisions around spending, hiring and investment, without having to assemble the picture manually every time.”

Built to grow with the business

Helvo subscriptions start at CHF 39 per month, with included usage depending on the chosen plan. As a business grows, additional usage can be added across services such as accounts, cards, transactions and invoices. Aspart of the public launch, all new customers will receive their first month free.

Helvo is not a bank. Accounts are provided through Hypothekarbank Lenzburg AG, a Swiss bank supervised by FINMA. Customer funds are held with the bank, with deposits protected up to CHF 100,000 under the Swiss deposit insurance scheme, esisuisse. Helvo combines this regulated Swiss banking infrastructure with technology designed around the specific financial and administrative requirements of Swiss SMEs.

That foundation also creates the potential to improve access to SME financing. By bringing together current accounting and transaction data for businesses using the platform, Helvo intends to work with regulated lending partners to enable faster assessment of smaller SME financing requests, with credit decisions and lending remaining with those partners.

Swiss businesses already have access to excellent banks,accountants, fiduciaries and financial tools. The opportunity is to make those different parts of running a business work better together,” says Barbotin-Larrieu. “If we can reduce the administrative burden and remove more of the friction SMEs face every day, we give entrepreneurs more time to focus on their customers, invest and grow - and that ultimately benefits the wider Swiss economy. Financing is a natural next step. The financial information required to understand a healthy Swiss business should not have to be rebuilt from scratch every time it needs financing. Our role is to make that information clearer and more readily available to regulated lending partners,so decisions can potentially be made faster.”

Helvo is targeting 500 Swiss businesses on the platform by the end of 2026 as it scales its financial operating system across the Swiss SME market.

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